Greg Sarris: Becoming Story, Heyday Books

What if we moved over to a sense of time which is seeking and passing on what Sarris called a “blueprint for the future” in this present moment, describing to each other “how to use ethics, aesthetics to create stories, models for grandchildren” when a particular writer speaks, photographs, or puts pen to paper, seven generations into the future, resting on just as much ancestral knowledge into the past? Can it be done? Maybe it has to. Maybe it’s the humans’ task in what’s left of the reciprocal gift culture of thOur remaining abundant, resourceful world…

I’m learning another “deep ecology” story. World history “independent of its instrumental benefits for human use.”  What a concept!

Sarris’ Becoming Story: A Journey among Seasons, Places, Trees and Ancestors, another gem from Berkeley’s Heyday Books, is about just that – the stories that knit together his own life with his Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok, Filipino and white foster parent community and ancestors with the land as living being: the happenings in that fabric with the “history,” song and story of earth, water, wind, ocean, fire, flora, fauna, birds, reptiles, insects and the relative latecomers known as human beings.

Redwoods, rivers and ospreys, however, “contain a longer memory of the forest. ” "For Coast Miwok people, like all indigenous peoples of central California, the landscape was nothing less than a richly layered text, a sacred book; each ocean cove, even the smallest seemingly unassuming rock or tract of open grassland--each feature of the natural world was a mnemonic peg on which individuals could see a story connected to other stories and thus know and find themselves home."  The values, practices, culture, memories and languages woven together of what became Sonoma and Marin Counties in the present day.

"...Believing that everything in nature is alive---and has power---you have to be careful not to mistreat or insult even the smallest pebble on your path. Likewise, people have power, often secret power…If you have to physically assault another person, you reveal that you have no secret power…it suggests that you possess no spiritual power and can therefore be attacked without worry of retribution…the culture was predicated on profound respect: you had to be mindful of all life, reminded always that you were not the center of the universe but just a part of it." 

When Sarris lamented to elder Mabel McKay “If everything’s going to burn, what do I do?” as they drove through the desiccated landscape of Sonoma County, she replied, “You live the best way you know how, what else?” and laughed. (Photo is Julia Parker Kashia Coast Miwok Pomo Basketmaker *)

They declare "You must remember the plant’s (animal’s or place’s) name, or it will forget you,” with an ominous, sincere, ceremonial and sacred sense of responsibility, “consequence” and reciprocity.

Extinction happens. Built in to the stories and language, “You are,” (unlike Descartes, Popes, Kings, Deists, heroes, celebrities and the Enlightenment scientists,) “not the center of the universe.” If you don’t have and show “respect, you get corrected.”

Wonderful book. Very fine writer. Moving life experiences. Healing visions. Possible futures. What more could you ask for?

* Julia Parker “Grandmothers Prayer: Native American Basketry,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBhOuRY7h4M    (2 July 2022) Teaching the Story of Basketry – a few quotes from the transcript:

“We teach you from the heart.” “These plants have only been touched by nature, and you have the privilege of learning about these plants, and you listen to the stories when they say ‘wait for the leaves to turn yellow’ and they talk to them, you know. ‘Scrape the willow til it sings to you’ ‘The first basket you give away, you’ll be a weaver’”

“The first class before we start, we like to give a blessing because this is the home of our Coast Miwok people and we like to pay respect to the people that were here, my people, Linda’s people, Marcia’s’ people and of course your people, too. We (who) have learned by looking, looking at baskets and looking at the things that I make, trying to make my work look like theirs.”

“All of us who teach the story of basketry, that we’re all looking for the same thing. We want the people to have a greater understanding of what their own lives are like. And that the plants and the animals; that the earth is important, and we take care of it the way they did.”